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TALBOT family, of Margam Abbey and Penrice Castle , Glam . It was by marriage with a Mansel of Margam — see Mansel family of Margam and Penrice — that a member of the Wiltshire family of Talbot became connected with Glamorgan . This was JOHN TALBOT , of Lacock Abbey , who m. MARY MANSEL , daughter of Thomas Mansel (d. 1723 ), 1st baron Mansel . THOMAS TALBOT , cleric , son of this marriage, became eventually, through his mother, and on the death ( 1750 ) of his mother's brother, Bussy , 4th baron Mansel , heir to the Margam and Penrice estates. Thomas Talbot 's son, by his wife Jane , daughter of Thomas Beach , was THOMAS TALBOT ( 1747 - 1813 ) who m. lady Lucy Fox Strangways , daughter of Henry , 2nd earl of Ilchester , and by her was the father of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (below).

There are numerous references to John Ivory Talbot , Thomas Talbot , Thomas Mansel Talbot , and Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot in the Margam and Penrice muniments in N.L.W. ; see also the manuscripts of John Montgomery Traherne (q.v.) (brother-in-law of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot ) which are in N.L.W. For example, there are echoes of Thomas Mansel Talbot ' industrial interests in N.L.W. MS. 6582 . Letters which C. R. M. Talbot sent to Traherne are in N.L.W. MSS. 6599-6600 ; see also Margam and Penrice documents 9237-45 , and consult the N.L.W. schedule of the Margam and Penrice letters .

Of the four Talbots named above it was probably

CHRISTOPHER TALBOT ( 1803 - 1890 ) who played the most prominent part in the life of Glamorgan . He was b. 10 May 1803 at Penrice Castle , the son of Thomas Mansel Talbot and the lady Lucy Fox Strangways , named above. He was educated at Harrow and Oriel College , Oxford ( B.A. 1824 , with 1st class honours in mathematics). He inherited the estates in 1824 and m., 28 Dec. 1835 , lady Charlotte Butler (d. 1846 ), daughter of Richard , 1st earl of Glengall . He represented Glamorgan in Parliament for a very long period — from 1830 until he d. in 1890 ; from 1874 he was the ‘Father of the House of Commons .’ First elected in 1830 to succeed his step-father, Sir Christopher Cole (d. 1836 ), his mother's second husband (for some of Cole 's Glamorgan election experiences see N.L.W. MSS. 6575-6 ), he was re-elected at every subsequent poll — 1831 , 1832 , 1835 , 1837 , 1841 , 1847 , 1852 , 1857 , 1859 , 1865 , 1868 , 1874 , 1880 ; in the election of 1885 he was chosen to represent the new constituency of Mid-Glamorgan , being reelected in 1886 . He was appointed lord lieutenant of Glamorgan in 1848 . He was F.R.S.

C. R. M. Talbot d. 17 Jan. 1890 , leaving two unmarried daughters — OLIVIA TALBOT (d. 1894 ) and EMILY TALBOT (d. 1918 ), and BERTHA TALBOT , who married John Fletcher , Saltoun Hall , Haddingtonshire , Scotland . The sisters were generous supporters of many institutions and causes in Glamorgan , particularly churches; it was Emily Talbot who arranged for Walter de Gray Birch , of the British Museum , to arrange and catalogue, in six printed volumes, the greater part of the Margam and Penrice muniments (now in N.L.W. ). Their brother, THEODORE TALBOT , had pre-deceased his father.

Bibliography:

To the sources already named add National Library of Wales Manuscript 6551;

W. R. Williams , The History of the Parliamentary Representation of Wales , 1895 ;

Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales , 1872; 1875 ;

C. A. Maunsell and E. P. Statham , History of the family of Maunsell (Mansell, Mansel) , London, 1920 .

Author:
Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952), Aberystwyth.